Hands-On Workshops Set for Grove Park Inn Conference

Head, Heart and Hand: The Arts & Crafts Motto

You cannot truly appreciate what has gone into a piece of Arts & Crafts furniture, textile, pottery, tile or metalware until you have rolled up your sleeves and sunk your hands into it. We can feel it with our heart, we can understand it with our head, but until you have actually worked on it with your hands, your Arts & Crafts experience will not be complete.

Each February, attendees at the national Arts & Crafts Conference at the Grove Park Inn overlooking Asheville, N.C., have the opportunity to take part in one of several workshops designed to enable them to experience what an Arts & Crafts craftsman or craftswoman would have experienced. Class size is limited, so pre-registration is necessary for you to reserve a place.

Here, then, are the 2011 Pre-Conference Workshops:

Decorating an Arts & Crafts Vase (Friday (2/18) 9:30-4:30, $135) Teacher and potter Peg Morar will provide you with a fired vase for you to decorate. It will be shipped to your home later.

Jewelry & Metalsmithing Techniques (Thursday (2/17) 2:00-5:00pm OR Friday (2/18) 8:30-11:00am, $90) Craftsman and seminar speaker Ron VanOstrand provides the tools and materials for you to make a basic copper piece or piece of jewelry. You keep the planishing hammer.

Designing a Landscape Plan (Friday (2/18) 8:30-11:0am, $90) Television host and author Paul Duchscherer returns to help you design a plan for your backyard.

Decorating an Arts & Crafts Tile (Thursday (2/17) 2:00-5:00pm, $80) Peg Morar offers this workshop in her studio next door to the G.P.I., where she will provide you with a tile and A&C motifs for you to select and decorate. It will be shipped to you after final firing in her kiln.

Basic Arts & Crafts Embroidery (Friday (2/18) 8:30-3:00pm, $120) Textile artist Ann Chaves will provide you with the materials and a kit to learn some basic embroidery stitches used in decorating textiles.

Furniture Stains and Finishes (two parts: Thursday (2/17) 2-5:00pm and Friday (2/18) 9:00-11:30am, $150) Nationally-known restorer and craftsman Dennis Bertucci takes the mystery out of dyes, stains and finishes while you color and finish your own quartersawn oak frame for the conference poster.

For more detailed information, please go to http://www.Arts-CraftsConference.com.

To register for a workshop, please call Bruce Johnson's office at (828) 628-1915. Reservations are secured using Visa or MasterCard.

See you there!